Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-01-20
ADIAMoSD STORY.
The Clever Work Naw Accomplished by
Dishonest Lapidaries.

A well known diamond dealer. who
iMs become an expert from many years
handling OF precious stones. was near
ly taken in few DAYS ago by shrcwd
diamond shark. whose new scheme de-
serves attention. as it is likely to be at
tempted in some other quarter. The
dodge consists in trying to palm off a
cleverly ''doctored" diamond asa very
valuable stone and in telling plausible
and picturesque story to give it coun-
tenance.
The short, stout man. with grizzled,
gray mustache. who tried to victimize
the jeweler in question, brought TO him
an elegant-looking solitaire ring, pur-
porting to contain diamond OF unusual
size and brilliancy. To the eye oven
of the expert the stone looked all right,
and the man tried hard 10 make bar
gain with him at once, without pro-
ceeding any further. As it looked. the
diamond was easily worth f200. and
the man, who told tale of dire neces-
sity. offered TO sell il for f100.
The story of the diamond as told by
the man. who gave the name of Charles
Harwood, was that it belonged origin :
ally to the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.
In December 1871. when the Grand
Duke. who was young and handsome,
attended the reception given in his
honor in the Academy of Music, an
episode accurred that attracted consid-
cradle attention at the time and has
been much talked of since.
Some time after the promenade, and
when everything was in motion, the at
tention of the Duke. who had gone up
stairs with two of the gentleman of the
committee, was attracted by lady in
one OF the corner rows of curtained
balcony boxes. There were but two
ladies in the box, one of them an elder
" lady and the other tall, beautiful
young woman. about 20 years OF age.
who had remarkably fine eyes. which
could not fail to be noticed.
The Grand Duke expressed desire to
be introduced. which was soon gratified,
and after standing for few moments
in front of thu box he asked permission
to go inside In little while he asked
the lady 10 90 on the promenade, and
otherwise showed his pleasure Mt meet
ing her, but she mildly and persistently
refused.
As he rose to go, the Duke, holding
her hand II moment and slipping from
one of his fingers n diamond ring. pre-
sented it to her and asked her to keep
it rs n souvenir OF tie occasion. The
lady did so. and kept it for several
years, until at last she fell INTO reduced
circumstances aud determined to get
rid of the ring i'll spite of its associa-
tons.
Such, in substance, are the facts of an
occurrence upon which the MAI with
the diamond TO sell told his story. He
represented that the diamond he had
was the ono given to TINS lady, and he
cndeayorcd very clearly to trace lbs his
tory TO her. The ieweler, however. in
sisted upon removing the stone from the
setting to examine it, and this the man
allowed him TO do.
The mans willingness To do this very
nearly threw tie icwelcr off mis- guard
at the last luomcnt. especially as upon
removing the stone he conid see nothing
wrong with il. Taking upa microscope.
however. he was able 10 detect, with a
close scrutiny. a slight variation in the
quality and texture of the stone between
the middle portions and the ends.
Then he held the stone near lamp,
and in few minutes the whole natur G
of the ingenious fraud dawned upon
him. A small real diamond of inferior
quality formed the top and bottom, and
fine piece of crystal had been sand
wiched between them, adding nearly
ten times 10 the value of the stone. II
had been so cleverly ard ingeniously
put together with II colorlcss cement
that it was almost beyond the power OF
detection. The man. of course, express
ed surprise. and asserted that the dia-
mond was just rs Inc received it'd
LIS